Abstract:
This paper is the part of a broader research project entitled Type, Reader, Translator, and Strategy, which discusses the development of the “functionalist approach to translation studies” represented by Katharina Reiss, Peter Newmark, Christiane Nord, etc. Text typology has been one of the major concerns of German translation scholarship for decades. Based on Karl Buhler’s semantic functions, Reiss developed her model of translation criticism, which, in turn, became the foundation of the so-called scopostheorie today. The following topics will be treated: 1. place of functionalism in modern translation studies; 2. terminology and its Chinese translation; 3. Reiss’s works in English; 4. form/content, strategy and type; 5. Buhler’s language functions; 6. Reiss’s translation typology; and 7. application of translation typology.
About the Speaker:
Chu Chi Yu, formerly assistant editor at Renditions, Chinese University of Hong Kong, joined the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 1994. He is currently working on the history of traditional Chinese theory of Translation.